Thread: Advice on purchasing a coticule

Originally Posted by Paul76

It really lets you see a lot more magnified that far. Helps give a lot more info to learne from. I only can go to 150x might look into some stronger magnification. Guessing that should help speed up the learning process with being able to see what each stone does in that much detail.

Magnification can be a catch 22. At a certain point tiny defects look like mountains and ravines, and you can spend a lot of time chasing non-issues that don't negatively impact the shave. 100x is about as far as I go, and it's pretty rare that I actually break that out. Most days 30x is good enough.

Did you see where he mentioned about the rough garnets being to "aggressive"? He said using bee's wax, to fill the voids some to make it "smoother".
If yours is too aggressive then maybe that would help.
Who knows, thought about what you said when he mentioned it though

Thumbs down to overuse of microscopes. I used a USB 400x and for three weeks I had lots of problem edges and poor shaves. Since I unplugged and used my 10x loupe, things are back to normal

The coticule arrived yesterday, so like any kid with a new toy I had to play with it. I decided to try it out on my tatricer 5/8, it already had a good bevel on it and cut hairs along the full edge. I worked up a light slurry and started to hone, did 10 passes each way and diluted to clear, I did a total of 60 passes. Then stripped 40 passes. So off to the bathroom for the final test, it did shave pretty good, not as comfortable as my normal progression, but not all too bad for the first run on this stone.

I think tomorrow I'll start over on the raloe, from setting a new bevel and then the 4000/8000 and finished on the coticule. I think that I just got excited and jumped ahead of myself believing that the edge was as good as I thought. Under a 40x loupe the edge did look very smooth. Oh well I guess I'll just have to practice this stone for a lil while to learn its secrets.

That's awesome! Thanks for posting up a picture of it, it looks great! How does it feel when doing passes on it? You probably need to do more passes, I think it's pretty hard to over-hone on a coti. Have fun experimenting with it and stick with it until you get 'er dialed in, you'll be glad you did!

Paul, glad to see it made it to you, and you're right at it

Now I'm not saying that the youtube guy, somthing357, is totally right. But I did find, as he said, when at the last stage when the razor starts to grab it's ready.
I still have a lot more practice to do with my new one as well. But to be honest, I think it did a better job touching up the razor I tried it with than my Nani 12k.
But that is TOTALLY my opinion, YMMV

I'd also like to thank all the help that was given in this thread, that made me buy one too

Well the razor slid across the stone really easily and effortlessly. It never did start to grab at all. Now the slurry stone was grabbing and trying to chatter along the stone. I just need to do some more research on technique and keep at it. I'll also try a different razor that I know takes a better edge. For now I'm using ones that aren't as expensive during the learning process. And thank you to everyone for all the help and advice.

Originally Posted by Paul76

Well the razor slid across the stone really easily and effortlessly. It never did start to grab at all. Now the slurry stone was grabbing and trying to chatter along the stone. I just need to do some more research on technique and keep at it. I'll also try a different razor that I know takes a better edge. For now I'm using ones that aren't as expensive during the learning process. And thank you to everyone for all the help and advice.

I rounded the edges of my slurry stones so when they chatter they don't scratch. Another thing I've seen people do is make a relief cut in the slurry stone's face to relieve friction build up.

This thread made me pull my coticule out and start tinkering with it again. No success yet, but I think I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

The edges on the slurry stone are rounded already. Good to see that this is also inspiring others too

I'm not saying that my razor "stuck"'to the stone. But it did seem to have a bit more "friction" to it. I guess that's the best way to describe it